TN: Mom accuses special school of mistreating autistic 9-year-old

Note: From October 2007 - Article about 9 yr old boy with autism who was injured during a restraint

By Bob Fowler
Saturday, October 13, 2007

CLINTON — Things went horribly wrong on the first — and last — day Jeremiah Evans attended the Learn Center, according to his mother.

Malissa Evans of Heiskell said the severely autistic 9-year-old was bruised when improperly restrained by three male staff members at the Anderson County special school.

School officials said the child was properly restrained after he began violently resisting efforts to put a diaper on him and after he scratched and bit center employees.

Evans contends that Jeremiah, who weighs 51 pounds, is undergoing potty training and was humiliated by the employee trying to put a diaper on him.

She said her son was strapped down to a board at the center, and school officials ignored her anguished pleas to let her see him.

“I could hear my son screaming," she said. For more than four hours, she stated in an e-mail, Jeremiah wasn’t offered food “and only given sips of water.’’

Evans said she was stonewalled in repeated efforts to get local law enforcement authorities to investigate the case, which she said left her son traumatized.

She said she’s taken her complaint to other agencies that deal with disabilities, and representatives are checking into it.

The Learn Center in Clinton is for children who violate school disciplinary guidelines and have behavioral problems, Evans said.

It’s the wrong place for an autistic child, and Jeremiah was the only student there with that condition, she said.

“I was told the Learn Center was a place for children with disabilities," she said. “This has been horrid. This has been a nightmare.

“This kind of treatment of the mentally ill was outlawed years ago," she stated in an e-mail.

Since the Sept 13 incident, Jeremiah has remained at home, and Evans has been meeting with school officials to try to resolve the issue.

School officials were hesitant to discuss the matter, citing confidentiality laws.

But Learn Center Principal Gary Houck said the child was properly restrained only after the boy “scratched three adults and bit two adults."

Houck strongly denied that the child was strapped down.

“We have never done anything like that," he said.

Houck said one staff member held the child’s legs and another employee restrained the boy’s upper body.

All Learn Center employees “are properly trained in therapeutic crisis intervention," Houck said. Still, he added, “I can’t 100 percent say he (Jeremiah) wasn’t bruised."

What baffles school officials, from Houck to school district Director V.L. Stonecipher, is how Jeremiah ended up as the only autistic child placed in a center for students with disciplinary issues.

“I can’t answer that," Houck said.

“I think we’ve all asked ourselves that same question," Stonecipher said.

School officials develop an individual educational plan and try to place children in the “least restrictive environment," said Sue Voskamp, the school system’s director of special education.

The episode highlights some of the challenges educators face when trying to provide services for children with disabilities.

There are about 40 autistic students in the county school system, Voskamp said.

Even before the incident involving Jeremiah, the school system was developing a special program to address the wide range of needs of children with autism, she said.

Two special classrooms are being established — one at Fairview Elementary School and the other at Norris Middle School. Teachers are being trained, and the new program is expected to cost about $200,000 a year.

Evans said Jeremiah was previously a student at North Clinton Elementary, a city school, but he was rezoned this year to the county’s Claxton Elementary School.

That school, she said, “didn’t have the facilities necessary for a child with autism."

Evans said there have been meetings with school officials to try to resolve her concerns, and Jeremiah is scheduled to start attending a new class for autistic children at Fairview Elementary on Oct. 16.

“I’m just trying my best to get Jeremiah back on track,’’ she said.

Evans said the Disability Law & Advocacy Center of Tennessee is investigating the Sept. 13 incident. The center is a nonprofit, private agency that is federally funded.

Bob Fowler, News Sentinel Anderson County editor, may be reached at 865-481-3625.